Microsoft Has Released An Emergency Patch To Fix All Supported Versions Of Windows

In an effort to prevent history from repeating itself, like it did with cheating website Ashley Madison, software giant Microsoft has released an emergency patch that is able to address a critical flaw. The flaw has afflicted all supported versions of Windows, which includes Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 so the patch released will be resolving issues experienced on all these platforms.

Microsoft’s Windows Vulnerability Allows A Hacker To Remotely Take Over A Machine

The report comes in from ZDNet, and the details concerning the vulnerability states the following message:

“Allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits an untrusted webpage that contains embedded OpenType fonts. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.”

Additionally, Microsoft had also released a flurry of other fixes that address several other vulnerabilities. The description mentioned above states that a previously undisclosed flaw in the way Windows handles certain fonts could allow a hacker to take over an entire machine. In addition to running Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, users running Windows Vista, Windows RT, and Windows Server 2008 and later were also vulnerable to this flaw.

The software update, which has been labelled as critical to prevent any further intrusion in systems, is released almost a week after its scheduled Patch Tuesday where it typically issues security fixes. Although Microsoft is under the impression that the flaw is public, the company is unable to provide sufficient evidence to support its claim.

The security patch is currently available at Windows Update, and security researchers hailing from Security researchers from Google’s Project Zero and FireEye were given a thumbs up for finding the flaw in the first place. In order to prevent users running in to more issues like this in the future, Microsoft has made sure that future Windows 10 platform users will find it very difficult to avoid operating system updates.